Real Estate & Development

Updated plans for proposed Dickerson data center now online for public view

MoCo hearing examiner sets September public meetings to review project application

By

Elia Griffin

May 23, 2026 8:00 a.m. | Updated: May 22, 2026 6:09 p.m.

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Plans for a data center campus proposed for construction on the property of a former coal-fired power plant in Dickerson are now publicly available on Montgomery Planning’s development database.

Filed by California-based developer Atmosphere Data Centers, the plans are part of an amended conditional use application proposing the development of a campus of five data centers on a 110-acre parcel. The proposed campus is located within the Dickerson Generating Station property at 21200 Martinsburg Road.

Chuck McBride, CEO of Atmosphere Data Centers, said Friday in an email statement to Bethesda Today that the amended application now available for view “reflects the continued refinement of the Dickerson Data Center Campus” as it moves through the county review process.

“We appreciate the opportunity to present the updated application materials to the Planning Board and look forward to continuing to work through the remaining regulatory and permitting steps,” McBride said.

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He noted the timeline for the project will “ultimately depend on the completion of the County and State review processes.”

The plans, which are filed under plan number CU202413, can be viewed online in Montgomery Planning’s Development Activity Information Center database. Available files include the project’s application; a statement outlining the facility’s proposed operations, land use and acoustic reports; and plans for construction phasing, landscaping, open space and lighting.

What we know about the project

Atmosphere Data Center’s project calls for developing a 360-megawatt campus on industrially zoned land near the Potomac River, according to the filings. The proposed data center campus will “look much like a warehouse,” according to the company’s application.

“The data center will house computing infrastructure including servers, data storage drives, cooling equipment, power management devices, etc. to meet the demand for online storage for the purpose of housing digital records of every kind and website hosting,” the application says.

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The campus will have a wastewater management system, use well water for “domestic purposes” and draw water from the nearby Potomac River to cool the data center, according to the filings.

As designed, the data center’s proposed cooling system could withdraw a maximum of 500,000 gallons of water daily from the river, according to a water system report from GAI Consultants, a Pennsylvania-based engineering and environmental consulting company. The cooling system’s annual average daily withdrawal from the river is estimated to be approximately 69,300 gallons of water per day.

The report noted that the cooling system is not expected to be used during the winter months. In addition, the report noted the project will reuse the former coal plant’s water intake site but update the system with a lower intake velocity to “minimize risk” toward the river’s aquatic life.

The peak discharge volume of water used in the cooling system is expected to be around 480,000 gallons per day, according to the report. The temperature of the water returning to the river will be determined by a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit to be issued by the Maryland Department of the Environment.

The water report also points to several improvements in the proposed water-cooling system in comparison to the design used by the coal-fired power plant, such as a reduction in water use. According to the report, the former Dickerson Generating System withdrew up to 400 million gallons per day.

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A land use report for the project notes that back-up power for the campus will be provided by a battery energy storage system, natural gas generators, or “some other method of fuel type not contemplated or known at the time of this approval.” The data center’s use of diesel as a primary fuel source is not permitted, but if the project developers demonstrate that it is a requirement, the project is required to have an emissions capture system.

Data center moratorium

While plans for a data center at the power plant site were originally filed in 2023 by the property owner Terra Energy and garnered concerns from Upcounty residents and agricultural advocates at the time, the data center conversation has picked up momentum in recent months.

As plans become finalized, awareness of the project has heightened, with many residents and environmental advocates across the county expressing concerns about its impact on the county’s climate goals, the power needs of data centers and the impact on utility costs.

Earlier this year, county elected officials began developing regulations to govern data center development in the county. The Dickerson project is the first hyperscale data center to be proposed for the county. Other area jurisdictions, such as Frederick and Northern Virginia’s Loudoun County, have already seen rapid hyperscale data center growth.

Concerned about the rapid growth of the industry, in January, County Council President Natali Fani-González (D-Dist. 6), alongside councilmembers Marilyn Balcombe (D-Dist. 2) and Laurie-Anne Sayles (D-At-large), introduced a zoning text amendment, commonly called a ZTA, that aims to define and regulate data centers in the county.

“Once you have a data center as big as the one in Dickerson, that will attract other companies,” Fani-González said in January. “I’m afraid that if we don’t do anything right now, they could go anywhere.” 

The ZTA would restrict data centers to industrially zoned areas of the county and create new regulations related to noise, emissions and distance from residential areas. The Council’s Planning, Housing and Parks Committee is expected to review the ZTA after returning from recess in June.

In May, two other councilmembers introduced separate bills to impose a moratorium on the county issuing building permits for data centers, but with different timelines. Councilmember Evan Glass (D-At-Large) introduced legislation for a six-month moratorium in early May, and about a week later, Councilmember Will Jawando (D-At-Large) introduced a bill that would place the permitting of data center projects on hold for two years.

Glass, Jawando and District 1 Councilmember Andrew Friedson are among the seven candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for county executive in the June 23 primary election. All three have called for future data centers in the county to use clean energy.

Jawando has claimed his bill – and not the one proposed by Glass – would impact county permitting of Atmosphere’s data center project in Dickerson. Glass has said he is committed to making sure his moratorium applies retroactively to the Dickerson data center project.

McBride said Friday that Atmosphere respects the county’s interest in evaluating policy surrounding data centers.

“At the same time, we believe the Dickerson project is uniquely situated because it repurposes a long-standing heavy industrial and energy campus where transmission infrastructure and utility uses already exist,” McBride said in his statement to Bethesda Today. “We remain committed to working collaboratively with County officials and stakeholders as these discussions continue.”

What’s next?

If either bill is passed and immediately enacted, Atmosphere’s project could be impacted. However, there are several more steps for the project to take before building permits can be applied for. Those steps include receiving approval from the county Planning Board on the project’s forest conservation plans and final approval from the county’s hearing examiner for its conditional use plan.

In addition, the Planning Board on July 23 will also review a mandatory referral application from Atmosphere for a battery storage facility proposed for the data center campus, according to Montgomery Planning spokesperson Chris Peifer. The board only reviews mandatory referrals on an advisory basis and does not have the authority to make decisions on such plans. The battery storage plans will go to the Public Service Commission for approval.

The following week, on July 30, the board will review Atmosphere’s conditional use application for the Dickerson project, according to Peifer. During this meeting, members of the public can testify during the meeting. The board will also offer its own recommendations for the project, in addition to those from planning staff, and provide those comments as part of the hearing examiner’s review.

Hearings on the conditional use application at the Office of Zoning and Administrative Hearings are scheduled for Sept. 10 and 11, according to the office. The meetings, which are open to the public and anyone can testify, will be held at 9:30 a.m. at the Davidson Memorial Hearing Room in the County Council Office Building in Rockville at 100 Maryland Ave.

Ultimately, the county’s hearing examiner makes the final decision on the project’s conditional use application. The board does not have the authority to approve the application.

Bethesda Today reporter Ceoli Jacoby contributed to this story.

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine